Cotton, (i.e., plants of the genus Gossypium) long has been recognized to be an important crop which is being grown in many parts of the world. This crop is primarily grown for its lint. The seed may be used for planting or as a source of an edible oil with the seed residue serving as a livestock feed.
Modern agricultural practices are increasingly taking advantage of herbicides to eliminate unwanted weeds from cotton fields and to minimize the labor expense of tilling the fields to eliminate weeds. Presently, no selective herbicides that will kill only the major weed species are available for use in cotton fields. Accordingly, it has been necessary in the past to use genetic engineering to genetically modify the cotton plants so that they are resistant to herbicides that are normally non-selective and are effective in controlling the weeds that appear in the growing area. Such herbicide can be applied by spraying to the entire growing area at an appropriate time in the plant's life cycle. Representative weeds that are killed by herbicides in cotton fields include Amaranthis (Pigweed), Russian Thistle, Kochia, Mint Weed, Field Bindweed, Silver Leaf Nightshade, Lambs Quarters, Burr Ragweed, etc.
Genetic engineering has involved the incorporation of a foreign gene for herbicide resistance that is not naturally-occurring in cotton into a chromosome of the cotton plant. Such procedure requires special expertise and tends to be costly. It is necessary to use a promoter that is not naturally-occurring in cotton to be inserted so as to enable the foreign gene for herbicide resistance to be activated in the chromosomes of the cotton plant. A common promoter when incorporating herbicide resistance for glyphosate resistance into cotton is CaMV35S. Other available promoters include ACTIN, NOS, and PCSLV. Representative prior publications that concern the use of genetic engineering to produce such herbicide resistance include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,971,908; 5,145,783; 5,312,910; 5,352,605; 5,530,196; 5,633,435; and 5,858,742.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new route for providing genetically-controlled herbicide resistance in cotton plants in the absence of genetic engineering involving the insertion of a foreign gene in cotton plants.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cotton seed capable of forming a cotton plant having genetically-controlled herbicide resistance that is not attributable to genetic engineering involving the insertion of a foreign gene in cotton plants.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cotton plant having genetically-controlled herbicide resistance that is not attributable to genetic engineering involving the insertion of a foreign gene in cotton plants.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new isolated nucleic acid encoding for a protein which when expressed causes herbicide resistance that is naturally-occurring in cotton.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an isolated nucleic acid comprising HGg gene selected from R418ctHGghgg having ATCC Accession No. PTA-2132 which when expressed causes a cotton plant to be glyphosate herbicide resistant, as well as a to provide a vector and plant cell comprising the same.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cotton plant having genetically-controlled herbicide resistance that can be sprayed with a herbicide during all phases of the life cycle of the plant without any substantial harm.
These and other objects, as well as the scope, nature and utilization of the claimed invention will be apparent to those skilled in this area of technology from the following detailed description and appended claims.